Trip Report: October 11th-October 17th 2014 - Part 4

By Nick

Tuesday October 14th,

I had a hard time sleeping, as this was our Castaway Cay day, and I was very excited to be going to this lovely island that I had seen in so many photos through the years.

We had a quick breakfast at Cabanas, and then headed ashore.

I had been told that we should head directly to Serenity Bay, the 18+ beach, but instead we stopped at the Castaway Family Beach as it was already very hot. We chose a couple of chairs in the shade, and headed directly into the water to cool off. 

Note the prescription sunglasses I'm wearing above. More on that in a minute.

After floating around for awhile, we decided to try out the slide, Pelican Plunge. 

I had bought a really cheap waterproof video camera before going on this trip, which really worked out well, despite the photo quality not being the best, for $40, what the hey. 

I brought this camera to Castaway Cay, and figured I'd video my trip down the slide. 

At the top, the Cast Members warned me to hold onto my sunglasses. Did I listen? Sort of. 

I held onto the video camera with one hand, and my glasses with the other. 

Let's roll the clip.

I got to the bottom of the slide, and, yes, the glasses came off, and even though I had one hand on them, the gushing water behind me took them out of my hands. I was juggling them, and...gone.

I was told by the life guard who had witnessed this whole sad event that the bottom is very deep, and full of jellyfish, so the odds of me going down, blind, literally, and finding anything was slim to nil.

The life guard directed me to fill out a form. This is a very common occurrence it turns out, and every day, after closing, life guards comb the bottom for lost items and bring them to the ship.

Lucky for me, I'd brought a pair of regular glasses with me, so all was not lost.

After getting my spare glasses, we decided to head to Serenity Bay for a look at that part of the island. We were told we should get a tram, as the walk was long and hot.

Once we got to Serenity Bay, it did indeed look serene.

We preferred being where there was more activity, so we hopped the same tram back.

I'm glad we did hop a tram, we saw these folks walking, and they looked totally spent.

Once we got back to our chairs, it was closing in on lunchtime. You could smell barbecue all over, so we went to Cookie's to eat. The burgers were good, but the spare ribs and chicken were delicious. I even shared a frozen tropical drink with Barbie, who rarely drinks.

After lunch, we floated around in the lagoon for a couple more hours until we started to prune up.

On the way back to the Dream we stopped and took pictures at this popular photo spot.

Once we got back on the ship, we showered and got dressed for the Family Halloween Party at 4:45 in the Lobby Atrium, which featured a visit and dance party from our favorite Disney pals.

 

We were Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus on vacation. My wife sewed her dress, my shorts, and my Santa hat and facial hair.

We were a hit! Many people asked if they could get photos of us, or with us. We are pretty sure that some young children may actually have believed that I was Santa! 

The dance party was a lot of fun. Where else does one get to dance with Chip and Dale while holding a drink and dressed as Santa?

After the party, we headed to the upper decks as we sailed away from Castaway Cay.

We skipped our dinner at Royal Palace, and instead decided to try the sit down dinner served at Cabanas on certain nights during the cruise.

For appetizers, we both had the Ahi Tuna and avocado tower and Baked Potato and Cheddar Cheese soup, while for entrees, I had the marinated rib eye steak, while Barbie had the grilled Portobello Mushrooms.

Everything was terrific. This was my favorite dinner of the cruise. It was less formal, and the food was actually just as good and better than we'd had the previous 2 evenings.

We took one last walk around the Dream before turning in early, having decided to skip the adult costume party that evening at 10:30pm. 

And who did we encounter? Captain Henry!

And, to have an even happier ending to my favorite day of the cruise, we stopped by Guest Services to check if my sunglasses had been recovered, and indeed they had!

Please check out Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of my trip report as well.

Flea Market Find: Haunted Mansion Monorail Playset

By Nick

Walking around the Columbus New Jersey Flea Market back in April, I stopped by a friend's table to say hello, and saw this Haunted Mansion Monorail Playset.

I confess, I didn't have a clue as to how much this set went for originally, or how much it was worth, but I of course asked how much. The Haunted Mansion is my favorite ride at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom.

When she told me $5, I was very pleasantly surprised.

There are some fun accessories, including the Hitchiking Ghosts.

Out of the box.

It opens from the back.

The stairs swing out revealing more of the interior.

A  lot from the ride is represented including the floating instruments and the dining room.

The organ, floating candelabra, and portrait gallery.

The library,  the changing portrait of Master Gracey, and a view of the cemetery from above.

The accessories in addition to the Hitchiking Ghosts include the creepy chair, clock, and Madame Leota's crystal ball.

If all that awesomeness wasn't enough, it also has flashing lights and sound!

All in all, a really great collectible and one of my best ever flea market finds.

The Haunted Mansion in Walt Disney World

 

By Lisa Green


We, being the normal, run-of-the-mill Disney fans that we are, have a love – a passion, for that most special, most Disney-ish of all Disney attractions – The Haunted Mansion. 

Ask us individually what our favorite rides are and we will each give you a different answer.  Ask us what ride we MUST ride together, multiple times on every visit to Disney World?  We will all agree it has to be The Haunted Mansion at Magic Kingdom.  In both it’s original form and it’s new post-2007-refurb-form – we have always loved every single thing about this 8-minute doom-buggy trip through one of the coolest attractions ever scared up by Disney Imagineers.

If you’ve been there, you know what I mean when I say that the “Ghost Host’ is a very important part of the experience.  That voice!  Once he starts you off on your adventure, you can’t look around fast enough to take in all the carefully crafted details, thrills, oddities, surprises, not to mention ghosts the Haunted Mansion holds.  The stretching room with its crazy portraits and surprises, the dining room ghosts, the dancers, Madame Leota (“Goblins and ghoulies from last Halloween…Awaken the spirits with your tambourine!”), the bride, the cemetery, the busts singing “Grim Grinning Ghosts” , the hitch-hikers!  We love it ALL!  I guess that’s why we want to ride it again and again – we never feel like we’ve seen, heard, or experienced everything there is – and that’s just on the inside!  If you’re going, don’t miss any of the great tricks and treats that are in store for visitors in the Haunted Mansion’s queue.

 

“Now I will raise the safety bar and a ghost will follow you home.”-Ghost Host, Haunted Mansion
“Hurry Baaaaaaack……Hurry BAAAaaaaaaaack….Be sure to bring your death certificate if you decide to join us.  Make final arrangements now.  We’ve been dying to have you…”-Little Leota

Portions of this article were originally posted by Lisa on her Living a Disney Life-Empty Nesting with Pixie Dust Blog.

Trip Report: October 11th-October 17th 2014 - Part 3

by Nick

Monday, October 13th

Despite having stayed up so late the night before, I was up early enough to watch the sunrise through our porthole.

After Barbie woke up; okay, after I woke her up, we went to breakfast at Cabanas, where there are several different food stations and plenty of choices.

We then took a dip, as well as a quick soak in the hot tub, literally overlooking the ocean, as there is a clear bottom.

Barbie in her "French Style" suit, 

which prevents as much sun as possible from getting to her fair skin!

We then headed to the Aquaduck, which opened at 9:00am, so there was almost nobody in line, in fact we rode twice in a row. The Aquaduck is the water slide which goes around and over the boat. It is really a lot of fun, not to be missed, but I suggest getting there early, as waits get very long as the day progresses.

We then watched as the Dream sailed into and docked in Nassau. 

We had booked the Discover Atlantis tour in advance. As our tour wasn't until 11:15am, we had plenty of time to get showered before heading to the D Lounge on deck 4, where we met with other people doing the same tour, and from there we left as a group, gathering on the pier.

We then walked to micro buses that transported us to Atlantis. The ride was an adventure unto itself, as people seemed to drive wildly all over the island!

Once we arrived, we were given headsets so that we could hear our tour guide, who, despite being extremely friendly and knowledgeable, was so soft spoken, even the headsets turned up to 11 wouldn't have helped in hearing her well.

Our first stop was the series of aquariums known as "The Dig," which, along with it's many species of aquatic life, offers what is supposed to be a look at debris from the lost city of Atlantis.

We then had a long walk to the next aquarium area and got to see some of the other areas of Atlantis.

The Predator Lagoon was our next stop.

Afterwards, we had the option to continue to other aquarium sections or the rest of the common areas of Atlantis, but we decided to return to the ship.

We had a late lunch on deck 11, at the outside food areas by the pools. The cheeseburger from Tow Mater's Grill was really delicious, better than the burgers found at the Disney theme parks. The chicken nuggets were also good. Barbie had a panini from Filmore's, which was good. We also split a couple of pieces of pizza from Luigi's. Yes, pizza on a cruise ship, and it's good! It wasn't as good as the pizza we'd had on the Wonder, but it was still tasty.

After eating, we went to the Atrium Lobby just in time to catch Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Goofy dressed in their Halloween costumes.

We then headed back to our stateroom and showered and got changed into our Pirate gear, as it was Pirate night! Barbie sewed her dress and my vest weeks in advance of this evening!

We got photos with Peter Pan, Hook and Smee, then headed to deck 12 to watch as we sailed out of Nassau, and to see the sunset as we waited for the Mickey's Pirate Academy show at 7:45pm.

The Pirate Academy features Mickey looking for people to join his crew. We were trained in the ways of being a good pirate, just in time too, as Hook showed up with his crew, and challenged Mickey and his mates to a Pirate off!

Dinner was at The Royal Palace that evening. I had the prime rib while Barbie had the pasta with seafood. Everything was very good. For dessert I had the Rum Soaked chocolate cake which was also really good, and Barbie had the Coconut Cream Treasure, which she said wasn't bad.

By now, decks 11 and 12 were getting very crowded for the evening's Buccaneer Blast. We were very lucky to get a prime spot.
This 10+ minute stage show stars Captain Jack being pursued by other pirates for a gauntlet of great power.

Indeed, the gauntlet has the power to shoot fireworks out over the sea!

It was a thrilling ending to a long jam packed day.

Part 1 of the Trip Report can be found here, while Part 2 can be found here.